Building the FIRST PC, need help with parts!

Hello all, Im new here.. Im thinking about building my first pc and need lots of help. What I want to build is a higher end pc that will last me a few years without major upgrades.. What i need is suggestions from experts on parts im thinking of getting and if i should get it or no.

Without case and monitors and accessories, i want to spend no more than about $1300.

For motherboard, I was thinking about the ASUS Rampage III. Is it too much? is it actually good or no? is there a cheeper and better alternative?

As for CPU, i was thinking a i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz - want to overclock it to around 4.0GHz. good idea?

Now big question is on the video cards.. I want to do SLI, or even a 3 way SLI. Is it worth it? I do a lot of PS and edit videos sometimes, as well as games here and there... The card I looked at is the EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+, its $99 each with the $30 rebate on newegg, so itll be $300 for 3. there are plenty of reviews on them that are positive so I want to comfirm that. Or is there something better for the same price? as i dont want to spend more than like $350 on video.

I want to run 3 - 24" lcds and in the future want to connect my LED in the living room as well to stream movies to that tv.. Any ideas what to use?

for power, I was thinking 850w or 1000w?

any ideas on the audio card? i want a nice surround sound at like 6.1 maybe?

I want to have about 12GB of ram.. dont know if that too much for now or good.. as I dont want to spend a lot and dont know which one is good and not too expensive...

for the hard drives I want to just stat with a 2tb hdd, but want to run the windows 7 on a SSD of around 60GB or so to speed up the start up times..

What would you do.. please help

Thanks!!

I think for PS, it's mainly cpu and memory that matters.

For the graphics card, you should just spend the $300 on just one good graphics card. I think someone here can point you to that. I haven't been really keeping up with new graphic cards from nvidia.

Rampage 3 is definitely a great board, but overkill.
I7 930, good
12G ram... overkill. 6G is fine.
GPU: If y ou want to run 3 monitors, get an ATi 5850. It will be better performance than your SLI solution, and will be able to run 3 LCD's during gaming.
PSU: 850 is overkill, but nice to have.
Audio: If you buy a mid-high end motherboard, you should have at least 7.1

Remember that this socket (1366) expires next year. So your upgrades will consist of ram and GPU.

-D

Hey i'm new here and am trying to get more into helping and learning. So I thought i would give my advice and see what people have to say. I know a lot about the hardware nowadays i just recently built the computer in my sig.

With your budget, I don't think i would start at a Rampage III. That's a huge investment for a first build and for your budget to start. From what I have heard about SLI and or xfire it isn't worth it for the performance upgrade it gives. I would stick to one main GPU. I have a GTX 470 and I couldn't be happier, 1250MB/Direct x 11 and a really nice card... It will run you about 350 if you decide on that. 12GB is a bit overkill in my opinion as of right now... I have 6GB and couldn't be happier. I have noticed no lag what so ever on anything. As for the power supply I have a Corsair 750TX and was told it was a nice choice. If you are only going to do the one card which i would suggest I would go around there maybe a bit more. The Processor you chose is a great one, I've read around these forums and 4.0Ghz is very do-able on that cpu, it is out for a good price right now too. For what you are wanting I think you should up your budget or come down on a few things.

As for the TV's/Monitors Im not sure on that, I use a 22" widescreen and is working well.I wish you good luck with your build and hope you have fun! That is what it's about!
Let me know what you think..... If you want links i can get you a few to give you an idea.


-Zepp

I would personally go for the 5850 for the video card instead of the GTX 470. They both have similar performance but although the GTX 470 is better at DX11, not a lot of games use it currently and you would need to have at least an SLI system to run full DX11 games effectively anyway such as Metro 2033. The GTX 470 costs more and draws as much power as two 5850s in SLI so it runs hot.

Thanks for the replies guys, most of you said the rampage III is too much.. so what else would you recommed? if i can save some money, then im listening

Thanks for the video card recommendation, but what 5850 is it exactly? when i go on newegg then they have like 3 kinds of 5850.. and do you guys think that tis card is the best that $350 can buy?

I was hoping id get a recommendation on what RAM to get, and I was thinking 3 - 4GB cards, I think 12 would be good for the photo/video editing i do.. but if the cards are too much then id stick with 2 - 4Gb maybe..

Whichever 5850 you choose is your preference. The only difference of the different 5850's basically the warranty.

4GB should be good enough.